I may have two up today, but I don't know…maybe three?

this takes place when Peeta's family is returning, so a couple days ahead of the last one

Chapter 21 – Peeta's POV

Today we have to get my family from the train station. I'm pissed off because I'm still on crutches and I don't want them to see what happened to my leg. Katniss keeps telling me it's fine and that they'll understand. But then I'd have to tell them that I had a girl over for the whole week.

Katniss drove us downtown to the train station. "I've never been here before! There are so many people!"

"Yeah, it's like this all the time." I shrugged and looked out the window.

"What time is their train supposed to get in?" She looked at the clock on the stereo. It was one o'clock.

"I think they said one twenty-five or something. The capital likes to be precise yet confusing."

"That I believe." She looked in the rear-view mirror. "There's a cop car behind us!"

"The lights aren't blinking, you are old enough to drive and you actually have the hang of it!"

"Thanks. Let's hope I don't screw up."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be good. It's bad enough what my mom is going to do to me when she finds out I have had a girl over the whole week."

"What does she do?"

"Sometimes she beats me, sometimes she just tells me how useless and a waste of time I am. It just depends on her mood."

"Oh, that sucks. Do you like her at all?"

"No."

"Then turn her in!"

"We would like that, but they'd have to release her eventually."

"Yeah, then she'd go all psycho on you."

"Exactly. Believe me babe, we have thought about it." After all the traffic lights, we made it into the parking lot of the train station. Katniss helped me get my crutches out of the back seat and we walked into the lobby. She gasped when we got inside. "Never been here either?"

She shook her head and said, "No, never."

"Where did you go? You couldn't have spent sixteen years in that neighborhood and school!"

"Well, my father did take me places, but never downtown. He said it was too dangerous and crowded. We went south instead of north. But when he died, we couldn't afford to go places anymore and we had to move and sell stuff, and it just got too confusing." She didn't look at me once; just into the crowd of people ahead of us. We reached the waiting area. "So, fifteen minutes. Do you want to practice how we're going to tell them about me?"

"I was just going to wing it."

"You are good at winging it. Maybe, but we should have a plan in case things go wrong."

"Okay, so when they ask what's wrong with me, what do I say?"

"Just tell them exactly what happened."

I sighed. "Fine." I paused. "Okay, when they ask 'why was she there,' what do I say?"

"Say that I'm your girlfriend, but don't tell them-"

"That we had sex?"

"Yeah, please forget to mention that."

"Okay. Will do." I looked around to see if they were early. Nothing. "What if my dad notices the condom missing?"

She chuckled. "He won't. I doubt he won't notice for a while, considering how you described your family's feelings about your mother."

"Ah, true again." We talked until I heard my name called from the crowd. "Dad?" He emerged from the pool of moving people with my two brothers and my mother. I hugged them all and welcomed them back.

"Peeta, what happened?" My dad sounded concerned.

"I-" I looked at him. The rest of my words came out quickly and in one breath. "Some men came in and tried to rob our house and I tried to stop them but one stabbed me in the leg and I was on the floor. If Katniss weren't there," I gestured to her. She waved and I finally took a breath and calmed down my voice. "If she wasn't there, I would have been in really bad shape right now."

"Okay, and who is Katniss?"

I opened my mouth and couldn't find words. "I'm his girlfriend, Mr. Mellark." She took out her hand to shake his. "Nice to meet his family." She smiled. When she looked towards my mother, the smile faded and she looked terrified. My mother was giving her the death glare.

One of my brothers spoke next he was half laughing. The other was cracking up. As the youngest, I have had to get used to this. "Dude, why was she at our house?"

I clenched my jaw out of anger. "She stayed with me all of the week. Is that okay, dad?" It came out more of a mumble.

My dad was about to answer when Jake, the one not laughing his guts out, said, "Did you have fun with her, all alone?"

"No. Not like that." I said it as calmly as I could, but they could tell I was wanting to scream it. Katniss looked at me with a worried look. "Dad?"

"As long as you didn't do anything bad, I'm okay with it." He looked to my mother and nudged her with elbow. "Honey, do you have anything to say to Peeta?"

"Did you break anything?"

I was about to pop. We got outside and into the car; my dad at the wheel. When the doors were finally closed, I yelled. "Mom, of all the things you could say, you ask me if I broke anything?"

"Well, what am I supposed to ask you?"

"Oh, how about, 'how were you?' or 'I hope your leg is okay because you got stabbed!' Did anything like that cross your mind?"

"No, not really."

Katniss pulled her mouth to my ear and whispered very quietly, "No offense, but your mom is a bitch."

I whispered back, "I know." Jake and my other brother, Mike, looked at me and started laughing again. "Really? What is so funny?"

Mike finally was able to talk. "Only you could be home alone with this," he gestured to Katniss. "and not have sex with it."

"She has a name."

"Oh yeah, sorry, Catpiss. It's just that you look like you can get really freaky in bed."

She glared at them. "Katniss. And I don't appreciate the way you have been treating me. Your father and Peeta are the only ones who seem to know how to treat guests."

My dad looked in the rear-view window and smiled. She smiled back. Then Katniss looked to my mother who was watching the whole thing. My mother kept her same disgusted face she always has when I'm near her. This time, however, it was worse. Because of Katniss.